


for love is old

by jayeinacross



Category: James Bond (Movies), Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-29
Updated: 2012-12-29
Packaged: 2017-11-22 20:44:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/614151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jayeinacross/pseuds/jayeinacross
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Q answers the door when the bell rings, and finds a beautiful, striking woman with her dark hair twisted in an elegant knot and freckles scattered over her face standing there. Her expression is impassive, but Q can see determination and a hard kind of strength behind her aloofness, and he thinks that it's no wonder that she caught Bond's eye.</p>
            </blockquote>





	for love is old

**Author's Note:**

> Anon prompted: "How about some Vesper-isn't-dead related Bond/Q angst?"

Q answers the door when the bell rings, and finds a beautiful, striking woman with her dark hair twisted in an elegant knot and freckles scattered over her face standing there. Her expression is impassive, but Q can see determination and a hard kind of strength behind her aloofness, and he thinks that it's no wonder that she caught Bond's eye.

"You must be Q," Vesper Lynd says. "Is James here?"

"No," Q says, and he thinks about shutting the door in her face, because she's supposed to be dead, because she's been a ghost that's haunted Bond ever since Q first met him, because Bond loves her. But he lets her in instead, asks her if she wants tea, because she's alive, because Bond loves her.

They sit and sip their tea together, pretending like this isn't just a reason to study each other. 

"It was cruel of you to come," Q finally says, because he can see in her eyes that finding Q in Bond's flat is not unexpected. She knew he would be here and that Bond would not. "To walk back into his life now."

"You would have done the same. For him," Vesper says, and Q supposes that is true.

"What do you want?"

"I just want to see him," Vesper says. 

"If that was all you wanted, then you should have come when he was here," Q says. "Where were you? He'd like to know."

"I'm sure you know, Quartermaster," she replies, giving him a hard look, and she's only half wrong. 

He'd heard rumours, whispers, but he hadn't looked into them. Whether it was for plausible deniability -- or because of a much more selfish reason, Q isn't sure. "It would have hurt him," is all Q says. 

You will hurt him, he doesn't say.

Q's read the files, but Bond has never spoken about Vesper, and that's how he knows that she's still not just a part of his past. She's as beautiful as in the photos, but they never showed that look in her eyes. He can tell that Bond is still mixed up with feelings of her betrayal, of her love, of her dedication to him despite anything that she'd done.

Vesper doesn't reply, because there's the sound of the door opening, and there's only one person that could be. Q stands and goes to meet him before he can come into the room, and Bond's saying something about how the traffic is horrendous, but he trails off when he sees the look on Q's face.

Bond's gun is suddenly in his hand; Q must look more stricken than he thought.

"No, no, it's not--" Q starts to say, trying to get him to put the gun away, but Bond is already in the sitting room. He stops short when he sees the woman sitting there, but doesn't point the gun away.

"James," Vesper says, and stands up, but Bond doesn't move at all.

"You were dead," he finally says.

"Well, I'm not. I missed you."

Q hovers uncertainly; Bond and Vesper haven't taken their eyes off each other, and he'd held his own with Vesper, but now he feels like he's intruding. He moves to leave the room, but Bond stops him with his free hand on his arm, and he finally puts the gun away.

Vesper takes on a slight air of resignation, acceptance. She'd certainly known about their relationship when she came here, but Q supposes that it must be different seeing it in person. It was only one simple touch, but Bond has a way of saying so much with the smallest actions, and despite every uncertainty between them, Vesper still knows him well enough to know what he's saying.

She kisses Bond on the cheek when she walks out, and she says to him, "You've made your choice, then," but she's looking at Q even though she's talking to Bond. Q nods, and she goes.

Bond might have found out tonight what happened to Vesper, finally resolved the questions he'd been holding for so long. Perhaps they will be answered one day, but for now, he's just here with Q.


End file.
